Essays

0 commentsThere's a scene in Miracle on 34th Street where Natalie Wood is feeling glum because Santa Claus didn't bring her what she really wanted: a house.
On the way to visit Mr. Kringle in the old-folks...

0 commentsOn November 8, Virginia voters elected a new governor. They chose between three candidates who presented sharply contrasting views on many issues. Yet on one important issue, Virginia voters had no...

0 commentsNow that everyone is preaching their Lessons of Katrina, let's conduct a little thought experiment with variables. The laboratory stretches from ground zero in Louisiana hundreds of miles up the East...

0 commentsSo you didn't wait three cold days outside an electronics store to be one of the first to fork over $300 for Microsoft's new Xbox 360?
Never fear. eBay is here.
This year's hottest holiday commodity...

0 comments"American women don't wear knickers­ they're not in style." I was standing on a sidewalk in London, outside our apartment, chatting with my English neighbor. Her eyes opened wide at what I'd just...

0 commentsGovernor Mark Warner tried to make the case that experience with domestic policy can translate into expertise in foreign policy and national security when he met with Democrats around the country in...

0 commentsFor years, I've been wondering when pets would enter the realm of policy discussion and political debates. The news media generally treats this subject as a business story because Americans now spend...

0 commentsMy oldest son has always been a real life actor. This is the kid who, when he was not much taller than the kitchen table, insisted on clomping around in a big old pair of cowboy boots and a 10-gallon...

0 commentsIn a recent New York Observer column, Richard Brookhiser argues that if George W. Bush "is now a lame duck, it is by his own hand." Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina, says Brookhiser, was doubly...

0 commentsIt was wicked dark. My hand clutched the splintery railing, and I lowered one foot warily, searching for the next step in the long staircase down to the beach. I looked up. Not so much as a...

0 commentsAs I prepare to button up my sweater and head off to Scott Stadium to watch our own Cavaliers in action, I suppose I should be used to the fact that the Pep Band no longer plays at the games. But I'm...

0 commentsEach day has its own pictures:
bumper to bumper traffic two states long
a frenzied mob in a domed prison
rising water
the hungry pushing carts out of looted stores
rooftops in a lake as vast as the...

0 commentsFormer Hook music editor Mark Grabowski was just beginning graduate school at Tulane when Katrina intervened with plans of her own.
I moved to New Orleans for graduate school in the beginning of...

0 commentsLet me get this straight: A reality TV show exposing prejudice is killed after liberal groups fighting prejudice pre-judge the show as bigoted.
How ironic. How Hollywood.
I am, of course, referring...

0 commentsThe Senate will soon take up the question of whether the estate tax should be permanently repealed.
Before it was cut in 2001, the estate tax allowed a couple to pass up to a million dollars to their...

0 commentsPicture this perfect moment: two old friends reunited on a brilliant July afternoon, sipping margaritas on the deck of a New England restaurant, looking out over the Essex River and munching their...

0 comments"It's the worst in a series of violent and gruesome games that lower the common denominator of decency," thundered Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) the other day. Schumer is apoplectic over the new...

0 commentsFour years ago, the late Susan Sontag was excoriated for arguing, in a brief New Yorker piece, that the attacks that brought down the World Trade Center were inspired not by hatred of ''civilization...

0 commentsAt a recent Dana Foundation conference on neuroethics at the Library of Congress, University of Pennsylvania neurologist Anjan Chatterjee declared that we are already well advanced in the enhancement...

0 commentsAll the headlines about "Abuse of the Koran at Gitmo" are absolutely accurate.
Brigadier General Jay Hood's internal investigation has uncovered some shocking incidents. On at least six occasions,...

0 commentsNo. I'm not going to walk on graduation day. It's just not important." That's what my son said two years ago.
His fiancée, Amber, and I looked at each other, silently communicating that no way in...

0 commentsThere once was a time that keeping weight off was effortless. For most of us, we could eat whatever we wanted because the act of finding food was enough to burn it off.
As a child, I had no control...

0 commentsTraditionally progressive New England Governor Mitt Romney is pushing to reinstate the death penalty in Massachusetts where it has not been used since 1947. Connecticut recently executed serial...

0 commentsA headshot and bio are standard protocol to get an audition for a TV show or a play. But are they really necessary to buy a house?
They are in some neighborhoods of Los Angeles. There, in addition to...

0 commentsEven now, when I hear the word "classroom" I feel a little claustrophobic. I want to open a window and take a deep breath. School was always a drag, but third grade was the worst.
From September till...

0 commentsPrivate Kenneth Hatcher was killed in action in Normandy, France. He was one of 7,920 casualties of the 83rd infantry division during July of 1944. Private Hatcher was buried in Coleville Cemetery...